It had been almost a year since I said goodbye to the exotic kingdom,
and the wonderful experience I had there was one of the reasons that drew me
back to it again (to check out my previous post about Thailand, click
here). Only this time, I was there for a little over three months.
So, Thailand had enough time to sink into me for real this time, something that
was not possible because of the short time I had during my last visit. And sink
in, it did. This time, it was much better because I got to experience the
not-so-popular destinations and much better activities of the country.
Before I start, I’d like to give my verdict straight away: Thailand is
one of the best countries I’ve visited (okay, I haven’t had a very diverse
experience with counties because I haven’t been to a lot of places, but still,
I’ve had my fair share of travelling and I’d say Thailand is right at the top).
The people, the food, the culture and the destinations it has to offer are the
highlights. With super friendly locals who go out of their way to help you
(even if they don’t speak English) and make you feel right at home, with
exceptionally delicious dishes that fill every street and every corner with
life, with a very easy going and humble culture that teaches you so much about
happiness and how to lead a satisfactory life, and with spectacular beaches,
mountains, waterfalls, lakes and rivers, there isn’t anything else you could
ask for right? (Of course there isn’t! That was a rhetorical question)
So, here we go. I’ve compiled the 5 things I enjoyed the most in Thailand,
that doesn’t seem to be very popular in travel and tourism websites. Yeah,
there are so many things that I couldn’t do because I didn’t have enough time,
but if you’re someone who’s into exploring the local, unsung areas, then this
will definitely be helpful.
5. Exploring the coastlines and the hidden beaches of Trang Province
Okay, this is not so unknown amongst foreigners because its one of the
most popular hidden beaches in Thailand. And we got to see a fair share of
foreign tourists in this place. But it is still far less than what you find in
Phuket, Krabi or Pattaya, and of course far less chaotic and much more
relaxing. There were a high number of internal tourists though, but it was
alright. We grabbed a boat full of internal tourists and a guide who could speak very little English, but we didn't mind.
So, after half an hour into the sea, our boat stopped in front of a huge rock,
and then our guide asked us to jump into the water and swim towards it, which
we did. We then saw that the rock had a cave-like opening, and he instructed us
to swim into it. It was already spectacular swimming into a cave, but what
followed next was even better. The cave opened up into an island inside,
and it revealed a hidden beach. So we swam out of the water and into the
island, totally stupefied that we were in a beach inside a rock in the middle
of the sea.
If I get a chance to spend a weekend on a beach again in Thailand. I
would not go to Krabi, Phuket, Pattaya or even Koh Samui. I’d go to the
coastlines of Trang and have a nice, relaxing time along the beaches that are
not crowded, dirty or full of tourist traps.
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| One of the beaches in the coastline of Trang Province |
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| A night market in Trang city |
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| Cave opening up to an island, the one we went to in Trang is called the Emerald Cave (Image from www.tielandtothailand.com) |
4. Exploring the temples around Bangkok
I always like the idea of walking around cities to get to know them
better. But it seemed impossible in Thailand most of the time because of the
sweltering heat. But one fortunate day in January, when the heat had not yet
kicked in and the weather was cloudy, I decided to make a trip to the temples
around the city with a friend. We visited a few popular destinations such as
Wat Pho and Wat Arun, and a few not-so-popular ones. We did them all in foot,
because they are pretty close by, and it’s a very good walk.
Wat Pho was one of the popular ones, which had a phenomenal reclining Buddha,
along with a lot of other small temples and Buddha images, monk quarters, chedis that contained the ashes of royal families and several other meditating Buddha shrines. The huge complex could take well over half a day to explore,
but we finished exploring it in a few hours.
We made a stop to a few souvenir places and rode a ferry along the Chao
Phraya river to reach to other destinations, and my favorite one was the Golden
Mount Temple. It was a decent climb to the top of the temple, and it overlooked
a very nice part of Bangkok, where we could see some monk quarters nearby, residential areas, the railway
tracks, greenery and the skyline in the background. Cold, refreshing wind blew
along the top of the mountain. With the sunset, the lights around the temple
were more visible, and we could hear Buddhist prayers the whole time. It was a
very enchanting and spiritual experience to say the least.
Visiting temples, like the Grand Palace along with the ones I went to
are very touristy, I admit. But waking around the city and really taking the
time to sink into this spiritual mood is what gave me a different experience,
and that is why this activity is in my list.
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| A chedi in Wat Pho |
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| The spectacular Wat Arun |
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| The golden mount temple at night |
3. Trying some Local shops and street food
If there is heaven, it must have Thai food. The diverse delicacies and down-right
delicious dishes of Thailand might as well be the only reason people have to visit
this place. Apart from the good ol’ Pad Thai (Thai fried noodles usually with
shrimp) and Som Tam (Spicy papaya salad), which seemed to be very popular among
foreigners, I had a few other favorites which is worth mentioning:
Khao Soi
It’s a northern dish made up of crispy egg noodles and meat in
some kind of curry sauce and coconut milk. This spicy, soup-like savory dish is
my favorite from Thailand. It isn’t found easily anywhere though. Fishing for
some northern restaurants might lead them to you.
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| Khao Soi chicken |
Krapao Kai/Moo
This dish, basically found everywhere in Thailand, is
stir fried holy basil with chicken or pork and cooked under oyster and soya
sauce with garlic and pepper. Its so good, and so easy to make, that I learnt it
when I was there. A good tip for tourists travelling to Pattaya from Bangkok is
to stop over at Chonburi city and go to Pa Orn (by 388 Wachira Prakarn Road) and
ask for some Krapao Moo. This extremely spicy dish served with rice in this
particular place is absolutely heavenly.
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| Krapao moo with fried egg. (Image from http://www.foodparadisetv.com/thai-basil-pork/) |
Sai krok Isan
This is a dish typically from the north eastern provinces
of Thailand which is fermented spicy sausages and is eaten as a snack with leafy
vegetables like cabbage and chilli. So good!
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| Sai krok Isan (Picture by Thitimar Chongtaku) |
Dessert
Apart from the delicious Sticky rice with mango and the crispy Thai crepes, I was very fascinated by the Chinese street-food dessert places that had a huge variety of items you could choose to make your own dessert, such as broad beans, coconut jelly, waternut, dates, ginkgo and red beans, mixed together with sweet liquid such as syrup and coconut milk or Longen juice. There are countless other dessert dishes in Thailand because apparently, Thai people have quite the sweet tooth. But this unconventional dessert is highly recommended because it has a very peculiar taste that's different than the others. Plus, you can choose them right off the street.
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| The ingredients of the dessert laid out for the customers to choose |
Of course there are probably hundreds of other dishes that I didn't even try. While I'm not a big fan of fish and seafood, there were pretty cool places that seemed to have the delicacies of that variety.
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| Varieties of seafood in this one restaurant called Krau Yee Sarn (16/19 Soi Sala Thammasop 25) which is very beloved by the Thai people but doesn't have a huge popularity among the Farangs. This place supposedly has ancient dishes that aren't found easily in any other restaurants |
2. Taking a boat ride along Mahasawattha canal in the Nakhon Pathom
province
One of my friends decided to take us to a temple, which is why I hadn’t
expected so much. But it was one of the best trips I had in Thailand. We went
to a temple next to the Mahasawattha canal, and I found out that the community
there developed a package for visitors to see
and experience the area. The visitors would have to pay a small price for that,
and the money would then be invested into the community, which was a pretty
good deal. All of the activities were on the banks of the canal, and we had to
ride a canoe to get to these different locations.
First, we went to see a farm that had a variety of crops, fruits and
vegetables being grown. The best part was that the farmer himself took us in
his tractor to his big paddy field, also showing us a variety of fruits such as
jackfruit and mangoes. After the trip, we were treated with the best organic
guavas and mangoes grown from the farm itself. Then we took the canoe to a
lotus harvesting lake, where we hand-picked some lotuses ourselves and learned
how to open them. Next, we went to try some jackfruit juice growing along the
canals, and then checked out an orchid greenhouse.
The reason I loved this trip
was because it was very authentic, truly educational and very much integrated
into the lifestyle of the whole community. Agriculture is the main occupation in
Thailand, and the trip helped us delve into the actual lifestyle without any
adulteration. Thank you so much Tenth
for taking Cam and me to this trip.
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| A trip to the paddy fields on a tractor |
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| The lotus harvesting lake |
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| The orchids in the bank of Mahasawattha river |
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| A quick selfie while picking up some Lotuses |
1. Celebrating Songkran the local way
Songkran is a three-day new year festival in Thailand, one of the
biggest, which is popularly known as the water festival, because its when major
streets in cities are closed off for water fights along with live music, food
and drinks. Especially in Khao San, the party street of Bangkok, this festival
goes crazy, with foam parties and tourists having a good time getting drunk and
splashing water to random strangers. But I was lucky enough to see something
different than that. And, it was hands down, the best experience I had in
Thailand.
One of my friends from Loei - a north eastern part of Thailand, invited
me to celebrate Songkran with her family. I was not very sure about that
because I had no idea what to expect. But my five day stay with her family not
only taught me about Songkran, but also summarized everything about the
culture and the people in Thailand. On the day of Songkran festival, we first went to a temple in the morning
where there was a huge family gathering. Then after all the Buddhist rituals,
the whole family gathered around a few monks and poured water over their hands
as they were chanting their prayers. Then, the younger generation poured water
over their elders’ hands, while receiving blessings. They were kind enough to
involve me in that too, which was very nice of them. Finally, the morning merits
ended by paying reverence to the ancestors, which also involved pouring water
over their ashes. I found out later that pouring water represented the
purification and washing away of sins and bad luck. So even when you were
walking down the streets and some random stranger tried to splash some water on
you, I learned that it was polite to smile and say thank you.
The formalities
ended with that, and so we moved to the family garden for some buffet brunch.
Although I didn’t understand much that was going on in the gathering (because I
didn’t know anybody, and what they were saying), I could understand that it was
a reunion of an extended family where everyone scattered around Thailand came
together and caught up with everything that was going on in their lives, which
was great to see. I was told that Sonkran was the time of year where people
living away from their families returned home and reunite with their elders. The
fact that I was welcome and introduced to such a heartwarming tradition is why
this experience is the best I had because I believe that I truly learnt the
Thai lifestyle during this time. At night, we went to the Sonkran festival and
had a pretty nice time listening to live music and walking down the streets
completely drenched in water. I imagine more of this was what was popular among
tourists around Bangkok, because this was also extremely amusing. If you’re
reading, thank you so much Tennis for the amazing times in Loei, Khon Kaen and
Udon Thani.
Of course I did all the usual touristic things, but when I look back at
my memories in Thailand, I realized that the best times I had were the times
when I did the unconventional, presumably boring but actually very fascinating
things. And that’s why they are worth going up this post. Anyone planning to
make a trip to Thailand, these should definitely go into your itinerary.
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| While walking down Khao San road, one of the most popular streets for backpackers in Bangkok |
